GAIA vs Rewind
Rewind recorded and transcribed everything you saw and heard on your Mac, until Meta (via the Limitless acquisition) shut screen and audio capture down on December 19, 2025. GAIA takes a fundamentally different approach — building structured, graph-based memory from real integrations across email, calendar, and tasks, then acting on that context proactively — and it is actively maintained.
Rewind carved out a distinctive niche by recording everything that appeared on your screen and everything captured by your microphone, then making that archive instantly searchable with AI. It was a powerful recall tool — if you saw it or heard it, you could find it again. In December 2025 Meta acquired Rewind’s parent company Limitless, and screen and audio capture were disabled on December 19, 2025; the apps are no longer available for download. GAIA takes the opposite stance. Rather than recording your screen, GAIA connects directly to your email, calendar, tasks, and other tools, builds a structured graph of your work context, and then acts proactively on your behalf — drafting replies, creating calendar events, running multi-step workflows — without waiting to be asked. The choice is between a perfect memory of what you did and an assistant that helps you do what comes next.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | GAIA | Rewind |
|---|---|---|
| Core approach | Proactive productivity OS that connects to live tools (email, calendar, tasks, Slack) and executes actions across your digital workflow before you ask | Passive screen and audio recorder that built a searchable timeline of everything you saw and heard on your Mac, until capture was disabled in December 2025 |
| Memory type | Graph-based structured memory derived from real integrations: tasks linked to emails, meetings linked to people, projects linked to outcomes: updated continuously from live data | Compressed screen recordings and audio transcriptions stored locally; memory was a verbatim archive of past activity rather than a structured model of relationships |
| Privacy model | Source-available and self-hostable via Docker: you own all data, nothing is used for model training when self-hosted, and you can run the entire stack on your own infrastructure | Processed and stored recordings locally on your Mac by default, but the application was closed-source and Mac-only; during the wind-down, remaining users were offered export and deletion tools |
| Email management | Full Gmail automation: triages inbox by urgency, drafts context-aware replies, auto-labels messages, and creates tasks directly from emails | Could surface past emails that appeared on screen via the searchable timeline; never connected to Gmail, drafted replies, or took any action inside your inbox |
| Task management | AI-powered todo management with semantic search, labels, priorities, projects, and deadlines; tasks are created automatically from emails, conversations, and workflows | Had no native task management; could recall tasks visible on screen in past recordings, but could not create, assign, or manage todos |
| Proactive actions | Continuously monitors connected tools and triggers actions automatically: meeting briefings, inbox triage, deadline reminders, and multi-step workflow execution: without a prompt | Entirely reactive; waited for you to search or ask a question about past activity; never initiated actions or alerts |
| Workflow automation | Multi-step automations described in natural language with triggers, conditions, and cross-tool execution spanning email, calendar, Slack, Notion, GitHub, and more | Had no workflow automation engine; the product was a search and recall interface, not an automation platform |
| Integrations | MCP integrations including Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, GitHub, Linear, Todoist, Asana, and Jira with deep bi-directional read and write actions | Had no external service integrations; captured whatever was visible on screen, but never connected to or wrote back to any tool |
| Platform support | Web, macOS, Windows, Linux desktop apps, CLI, and Discord/Slack/Telegram bots | Was macOS only; apps are no longer available for download since December 2025 |
| Pricing | Hosted: paid plan at $30/month; self-hosting free for non-commercial use (plus your own model API costs) | Product discontinued: screen and audio capture disabled December 19, 2025; apps no longer available for download |
Why Choose GAIA
- +Acts proactively on your behalf: triages email, prepares meeting briefings, and executes workflows without you opening a chat or running a search
- +Structured graph-based memory models real relationships between tasks, people, meetings, and projects rather than storing a raw recording of past screen activity
- +Live integrations with bi-directional read and write access mean GAIA can take action inside Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Notion, and more: not just recall what was once visible
- +Cross-platform support on Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and bots: not locked to a single operating system
- +Source-available (PolyForm Noncommercial) and self-hostable with Docker: complete data ownership, no closed-source dependency, and no requirement to trust a third-party with a recording of your entire screen
Where Rewind Excels
- +Captures everything without configuration: any application, meeting, browser tab, or conversation that appears on screen is automatically included in the searchable archive
- +Local-first storage keeps recordings on your own Mac by default, which appeals to users who want screen data to never leave their device
- +Powerful recall for past activity: ideal for reconstructing decisions made in meetings, recovering information from closed tabs, or reviewing what was discussed weeks ago
The Verdict
Rewind was a compelling recall tool for Mac users who needed to search the past: what was said in that meeting, what was on that tab, what was in that document. It is discontinued, so if your primary need was a perfect memory of your digital history, export any remaining Rewind data and look at maintained recall tools. If you want an AI that actively manages your inbox, calendar, tasks, and workflows across every platform and acts without being prompted each time, GAIA is the better fit.
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